 All praise belongs to Allah SWT, the Lord of the worlds, the one and only true God, the most compassionate, the merciful. There is nothing like him whatsoever, yet he is the all-hearing and the all-seeing, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the final messenger of God, the seal of the prophets, the commander of the righteous, the leader of the messengers, and beloved of the Lord of the worlds. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, He was not an idol worshiper. As you know, this Eid is tied to the pilgrimage, the Hajj, and our master Ibrahim Alai Salam. And Ibrahim Alai Salam is revered as a great patriarch of all three major religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He's called a friend of God in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. And yet there are significant differences between the sacred historical narratives of the Bible and biblical tradition and those of the Qur'an and Muslim tradition. So I thought that this morning I would highlight some of those similarities, as well as some key differences, and to maybe explore the significance of these differences between our tradition and the so-called Judeo-Christian tradition. According to our sacred historical narrative, our master Ibrahim Alai Salam traveled to the Arabian Peninsula with his eldest son Ismail Alai Salam. And both father and son built the walls of the Kaaba in Mecca, the foundations of which were laid down by our master Adam Alai Salam, the first human being. This is sort of like the origin story of our Dean, so to speak. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an, I swear by this city, meaning Mecca, and you are free man in this city. And by the father, the father, and what he has begun. Truly mankind is in constant struggle. He said that the father here is Ibrahim Alai Salam. And Ma Walada is Ismail Alai Salam and his progeny. That Allah SWT is taking an oath by Ibrahim and Ismail Alai Salam. These two great ancestors of the Arabs. And of course this was something that was known among the Arabs that they were descendants of Ibrahim Alai Salam through Ismail Alai Salam. This is what gave this oath such potency when the Quraysh first heard it in Mecca. In Al-Bukhari where I told that the Mushriqin placed an icon of Ibrahim and Ismail Alai Salam inside the Kaaba. And the Prophet SAW ordered it to be removed at the conquest. So they knew their lineage. They were proud of their lineage. Now according to our narrative, in more ancient times Mecca was known as Becca. Imam Az-Zamakhshari who was a master philologist, he said that in some dialects of Arabic, the meme and the ba are sometimes interchanged. In its origin the word Becca seems to be related to the Arabic and Hebrew root word meaning to cry or to weep. So the original name of Mecca meant something like the weeping valley. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an Indeed the first house ever founded for humanity. For the worship of the one true God was at Becca. The blessed, a guide for all people. In it are clear signs and the standing place of Abraham. Whoever enters it should be safe. Pilgrimage to this house is an obligation by God upon whoever is able among the people. And whoever disbelieves surely Allah is not in need of any of His creation. So it was in this weeping valley of Becca that Ismail alaihi salam as a very young child cried for water. While his mother Assaida Hajar alaihi salam ran frantically between two hills Safa and Marwa in search of water to give to her son. Eventually a blessed spring was given to her by Allah SWT, the water of Zem Zem, water that flows to this day. The name Hajar is pronounced Hagar in English from the Hebrew Hagar in the Torah. And it's related to the Arabic word hijrah meaning flight or migration. It was Hagar and her son Ismail, peace be upon them, who migrated from Canaan to the Meccan valley by order of Allah SWT. In the hadith we are told that Hajar alaihi salam said Oh Abraham, are you leaving us in a barren valley? And she repeated this many times and Ibrahim alaihi salam did not answer her. And then she said Allah SWT ordered you to do this. And Ibrahim alaihi salam he said yes. And then she said Allah will never neglect us. Subhanallah. Imagine how difficult this was for her. This was a great, great woman. Look at the faith, the iman, the taqwa, the tawakul, the taslim, the shaja'a. We live in a society now where people cannot even define what a woman is anymore. Language and meaning are seriously breaking down. We don't have that problem. This is a woman, Asaidah Hajar alaihi salam. She was a princess of Egypt who gave her life to Allah SWT living in a barren desert. Allah SWT made her the matriarch of our deen and the ancestor of the prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wa sallam. Now this is a major difference of opinion we have with Biblical tradition with Jews and Christians in Genesis and the Torah in the Bible we were told that Sarah, the second wife of Abraham banished Hagar and Ishmael into the desert and that this happened on the day of Isaac's weaning. Now in Jewish law a baby is weaned for three years. So this would have made Isaac three years old when this happened. However, Genesis also says that Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac. So this would have made Ishmael 17 years old when he was quote unquote banished into the desert the same age as Joseph according to Genesis when he was thrown into a well by his brothers a young adult. But if you read that narrative in Genesis 21 of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert Ishmael is clearly described as a baby or a toddler who cries and is picked up by his mother in her arms. You see Subhanallah the deception of the editors of the text is unveiled. The scribe or scribes or the editors who put these stories together in the Torah not only manufactured certain texts but they manipulated the chronology of certain events and certain narratives in order to discredit certain individuals that they did not like. In this case Hagar alaihi salam and Ishmael alaihi salam Ishmael was a child at the time. That's the truth. The prophet sallallahu alaihi salam said He left Hajar and Ishmael in the desert and she was nursing him. She was nursing Ishmael. So this inconsistency in the chronology of the biblical narrative proves that it is impossible for Hagar and Ishmael to have been banished on the day of Isaac's weaning. Isaac peace be upon him Ishaq alaihi salam had nothing to do with this. Isaac would not be born for another several years. The editors inserted Isaac into the story because they wanted to elevate Isaac over Ishmael for tribal reasons. In other words, the real reason why Hajar alaihi salam and Ishmael alaihi salam earned the desert is not mentioned by the biblical editors or it was buried by them. It was concealed. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran yuharrifunal talima amma wadi'i that biblical scribes they shifted words out of their proper contexts. In other words, they decontextualized their texts to give false impressions. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says wala talbisul haqabin batili wa tatimul haqwa antum ta'alamun do not mix truth with falsehood nor conceal the truth knowingly. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says yaha al-kitab qada ja'akum rusuluna yubainu lukum kathina mimma kuntum tukfuna minal kitab wa ya'fu an kathir qada ja'akum nallahi lurum al-kitab al-mubin. O people of the book, indeed our messenger has come unto you exposing much of what you used to conceal in the Bible and forgiving much. There has come unto you a light and a clarifying scripture. The light is the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam and the scripture is the Quran. Almost all modern biblical historians agree with the Quran here. The five books that Jews and Christians today attribute to Musa alayhi sallam were in fact assembled about a thousand years after Moses by a group of editors who stitched together different versions of laws and narratives attributed to Musa alayhi sallam and in effect created the overall chronology of the Torah as we have it. This is called the documentary hypothesis and it remains the most widely accepted source criticism of the Torah in the Western Academy. But even with this said there are certainly kernels of truth here and there that have survived the passage of time that have survived the pens of the editors and have in fact maybe have in fact originated with Musa alayhi sallam. There are certain things that Allah preserved in the Torah. Therefore the Quran presents itself as both a confirmation of biblical tradition as well as a corrective. The Quran is Al Furqan. The Quran is Muhaymin alayhi. In Muslim understanding some of the ancient Israelites who were the Muslim ummah at that time they were the Muslim ummah. It seems that some of them considered the Ka'bah in ancient Becca to be one of the outlying tabernacles or sacred houses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that they would visit while making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There seems to have been an awareness at least in some circles of Abraham's connection to ancient Becca. These were probably people living in Yemen who converted to the religion of Suleiman alayhi sallam. So I was saying these were probably people living in Yemen who converted to the religion of Suleiman alayhi sallam for Abrahamic monotheism when Biltis, the queen of Saba became a believer. So they would make hajj from Yemen to Jerusalem from Yemen to Betul Muftis and pass through Becca on their way. Psalm 84 in the Tanakh describes the journey of a group of pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem who passed through quote the Emeq al-Baqa, the valley of Becca, the weeping valley and made it into a well. Now we are told in the Quran that after Ibrahim alayhi sallam and Ismail alayhi sallam raised up the foundations of the Kaaba they supplicated to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala O our Lord accept this from us you are indeed hearing the all knowing O our Lord make us both fully submit to you and from our descendants a nation that will submit to you show us our rites and rituals and turn to us in grace you are truly the acceptor of repentance in the Quran that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to humanity and remember when we assigned to Ibrahim the site of the house saying do not associate anything with me in worship and purify my house for those who circle it stand in prayer therein and bow and prostrate themselves and announce the pilgrimage to all mankind they will come to you on foot and on every lean mount and they will come from every distant pathway so they may obtain the benefits in store for them and pronounce the name of God and the official animals He has provided for them so eat from their meat and feed the desperately poor and let them end their untiiness and let them fulfill their vows and let them circumambulate the ancient house Surat al-Hajj verses 26 and 29 so we can see from the Quranic narrative that the pilgrimage to Mecca the Hajj with its rites and rituals has its origin and none other than Abraham peace be upon him however over time the descendants of Ismail and them in that region the Arabs began to fall away from the pure Abrahamic monotheism the Tohid Ibrahimiyah and eventually the Kaaba was filled with hundreds of idols that the Arabs would pray to as intercessors between them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because they deemed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala too majestic to call upon directly now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is majestic He is but He is also personal meaning that we can call upon Him directly and say, call upon me and I will answer you now according to the Quran there was one more thing that Ibrahim peace be upon him and Ismail peace be upon him prayed for at the Kaaba they said they said O our Lord raise from among them a messenger who will recite to them your revelations teach them the book and wisdom and purify them indeed you alone are a messenger purify them indeed you alone are the almighty this prayer of Ibrahim and Ismail was answered by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he raised the prophet Muhammad in Mecca as a universal messenger as rahmatan in alameen in fact the name Ismail in Hebrew ishmael means God will hear or answer and so his prayer was answered by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the prophet Muhammad is the prophet of the Abrahamic restoration this is very important he put humanity back upon the milla of Ibrahim peace be upon him the Quran says the Quran says the closest of humanity to Ibrahim are those who follow him as are this prophet and the Muslims those who believe and God is the protector of those who have faith the prophet Muhammad was the greatest monotheist in the history of the world the prophet Muhammad recited to humanity in the Quran God's final revelation he taught us the meanings of scripture by his speech and actions and like his ancestor Ibrahim his theological teachings purified humanity of both explicit and subtle idolatry now this Muslim tradition of Ibrahim and Ismail building the Kaaba in Mecca of Genesis in the Torah is not mentioned in traditions of Jews and Christians and the Jews and Christians say if these things really happened Musa alaihi salam would have mentioned them in the Torah and this is my response to this and before I give the response I want to make something clear that we believe as Muslims that Islam that the religion brought by the prophet Muhammad is Deen al Haq it is religion of truth with a capital T who was the Arsala Rasoolah Al Haq we have much in common with other religions this is true but there are also key differences and these differences are actually what make our deen unique it's easy to say that all religions are essentially the same and that details don't really matter that is doing a disservice to humanity may Allah SWT strengthen our iman with knowledge may Allah SWT make us a means of guidance and not a hindrance to guidance I say this and I ask Allah SWT to forgive him and to go to the Torah Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Al Haq Allahumma deenak aafoo, tuqibu la'afoo, aafoo anna. Just one last thing. It's wajid amongst the hanathis to do the takbirat after the fawq, salawat. Immediately after the fawq, recite the takbirat, insha'Allah ta'ala. For men it's a sunnah to be audible, for women it's a sunnah to be quiet. And you'll do this until Asr prayer on the 13th of Dhul-Hijjah, which I believe is Asr on Tuesday, insha'Allah ta'ala. There's more fasting in the following three days. Insha'Allah ta'ala. It's a knowledge on people from the bottom.